Will Google Be The Grinch for Android Tablet Lovers This Christmas?

Let’s face it, the hoped for swarm of Android Tablets featuring Honeycomb has basically turned into a discarded wasp nest of dashed possibility. Sure there are fan boys who love their Android Tablets, but Honeycomb Tablets haven’t yet produced much of a sting in the market.

That’s probably as it should be. Even with promises that Honeycomb would be the Android flavor that would unleash Tablet competition on thew world, in reality it was nothing more than a stop gap and it showed (and still does.)

Of course the new promise is that Ice Cream Sandwich will change all of that and set a new course. The jury is obviously still out on that promise and that, in my view, should cause some consternation, or at least some serious shopping comparisons, for prospective Tablet buyers this holiday season.

We’ve heard that a few existing Tablets should be getting an update to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, (mostly from Samsung). Given Android’s fragmentation history coupled with carrier and manufacturer roll out pacing of updates, that’s no guarantee if you’re looking to put a Tablet in somebody’s stocking this Christmas. Certainly, there’s no guarantee of when Ice Cream Sandwich updates will be available for those updates. And remember in the past we’ve seen some early promise of updates for Android phones that have still not come to be.

I’m not trying to throw ice-water on Christmas plans here, but I think it is smart to be cautious if you’re heading down this route for your Christmas shopping. Keep in mind also that there’s going to be a slew of interest in the Kindle Fire when it is released on November 17. Given that there are still Android Tablets running a pre-Honeycomb flavor of Android on store shelves, I’d just make sure you do your research before doing your Christmas Android Tablet shopping.

Sadly, I have to concur — have always enjoyed Werner’s commentary especially, but of late it seems that most of the GBM articles are Apple-focused and a bit too defensive of Apple for my taste. I’ve had 3 iPads (last one an iPad2) and sold all of them because while they do what they do well, thanks to Apple’s total control, I absolutely detest iTunes for the same reason, and find that I really prefer the Android versatility — might not have as many apps (yet) and there are the rough edges but having had tablets with Gingerbread and Honeycomb (through 3.2+) I really like the variety of things I can do. For my iPads it was boring by comparison. But that’s my take — others may agree, and I have no doubt the fanboys will disagree, but I’m tired of the Apple hype when there’s a whole “other world” out there.

Like I said in the post above: to each his own. I’m delighted you prefer your Android experience over iOS or any other platform. That’s your call and you’re welcome to it. You may be tired of the Apple hype, but just keep keep this point in mind, Apple (like others) continues to make news good and bad, and we cover it good and bad, regardless of our own personal preferences. There is more than one “whole other world” out there and we try to cover them all. Do our tastes and preferences affect our coverage? You bet. We don’t pretend they don’t. We’d be lying if we did. We’re all free to disagree around here readers AND writers.

Oh, give me a break. We report on plenty of cool and mobile things. Just because we report on cool and mobile things that our writers think are cool and mobile enough to spend their own money on as well as things that they aren’t, that don’t agree with your gadget world view shouldn’t send you off the rails anymore than Android fanboyism doesn’t send me off the rails. To each his or her own. In case you haven’t noticed we’ve got quite a bit of Android and other non-Apple coverage here as well. We’ve also got writers here who love other platforms and talk about them extensively.

If my tastes and preferences don’t agree with yours that’s cool and you’re certainly free to criticize it. But get real and take a look at the breadth of the coverage before you make blanket statements like “use to report on anything cool and mobile.” But then, you’ve taken your marbles and gone home, so I don’t expect you to see this comment.

And the worst thing a writer can do is to attack back. You are entitled to your opinions as are those who comment, but respect is earned. Your comments above aren’t disrespectful, but they don’t make me respect you.

I tend to agree on the imbalance of GBM reporting the comments above are referring to. You are free to spend your money on what you want and report on what you want, but I do not believe GBM to be balanced. Apple is the golden child and everything else is judged by how it compares to Apple.

Not meaning to attack anybody. Apologies if it seemed that way. I intended to complain not attack. For the record, a writer can do lots worse things. I know I’ve done most of them. That’s one of the reasons why I use my name when I state an opinion.

Asus Acer and Amsung will update their tabs for sure. And Android trablet will sale a lot during christmas because their a lot cheaper than a few month ago. Honeycomb wasn’t a succes but in 3 months they won’t be a lot of honecomb tablets left…

This is called play a sucker to catch a sucker. Amazon did to google what google did to Linux and Java. That is:

Use the code to your advantage, rebrand the software as if you created it, poach the ecosystem, strip the services from the bundle and introduce your own horizontal services. Just as Google does not acknowledge Linux and Java in Android, Amazon does not even mention Android in the specs. And the best thing is that Google cannot even complain because it has no argument which it can use against Amazon without looking a hypocrite. Karma is a bitch ! And Android will be googles waterloo. Lol

Well , i guess is the primary reason that android tablets hav”nt had as much traction is because of gaps in services aka Apps and a robust apple like itunes store with services like music, video, books etc. Apple had an 5 year head start on that with itunes. There is no code to track in the tablet market. tablets are media consumption devices for the most part in the consumer market. DOD just cleared the dell streak and that’s probably because again media consumption isn’t what they need but it apparently cuts it from a design standpoint. When that gap gets filled, it will take off if they can fill that gap before samsung with their media hub or amazon with the kindle fire.